App of the Week: TiVo for iPad

TiVo owners will soon have another excuse to keep their iPads close at hand while watching TV. Due out in the very near future, TiVo’s free iPad app lets you view air times for upcoming shows and set recordings remotely. You can also manage your current recording settings, change channels, and post witty musings to Facebook and Twitter. Don’t deprive the world from hearing what you think about whatever show you’re watching in real time!

The real draws here are the quick browsing capabilities and the ability to start playing something from directly within the app. Searching functions integrate broadcast TV listings along with content that’s available from TiVo partners such as Netflix and Amazon’s Video On Demand service. So if whatever you want to watch isn’t on TV at the moment, you’ll be able to get ahold if it from Amazon, for instance, and play it on your TV set almost immediately.

The app is only for owners of the newest TiVo Premiere boxes, which leaves us TiVo HD owners out in the cold. Maybe it’s time to upgrade to the newest hardware, so I can get the—oh man, I almost got bullied by marketing. I’d hope that TiVo would eventually soften up and let the rest of us have the app once it’s made exclusive to Premier owners for a few months.